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TSA accused of profanely ridiculing deaf passenger
The Transportation Security Administration is being accused of making jokes about a passenger's hearing disability.
A student traveling from Louisville International Airport after attending a National Association of the Deaf conference alleged this week in a blog post that said he was referred to by TSA agents as an "f---ing deafie" during his airport security screening.
The student also accused the TSA agents of eating candy they told him would be donated to the United Service Organization (USO).
In the original post, which was reposted this week on the libertarian Reason Foundation's website, the student says he was able to read the lips of the TSA agents.
"While I was going through the TSA, some of them started laughing in my direction," he wrote after explaining that he was wearing a shirt that identified him as deaf.
"The guards, as I was getting scanned, started eating the candy they just told me was for the soldiers," the blog post continued. "In front of me, still laughing at me (very clearly now). One of them asked why they were laughing, and one of them came up to me, pointed at my shirt, laughed at me and said, 'F---ing deaf.'"
The student said the TSA "called me a 'f---ing deafie” and laughed at me because I was deaf, and they expected wouldn’t say anything back (or wouldn’t hear them).
"Make no bones about it — she was facing me and I read her lips," the blog post said. "There was no mistake. I would later find out that they had called at least 4 other individuals the same thing."
TSA said in a blog post of its own on Thursday that it had reviewed the allegations and found no evidence of the claims.
"Immediately following a complaint by the passenger, TSA launched an investigation into the alleged incident, which included a review of more than 120 hours of CCTV footage from a three-day period to look for any scenes that matched the information in the blog post," the agency wrote. "A close examination of the video during this timeframe indicates that officers working the checkpoint were professional and appropriate with all passengers."
The agency added that it "takes allegations of misconduct seriously.
"TSA has zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind," the agency said in its blog post. "When TSA found out the NAD conference was coming to Louisville, TSA reached out to NAD and other members of its disability coalition while Transportation Security Officers at [Louisville's airport] received additional training on screening deaf passengers from local experts in the field."
This story was updated with new information at 5:51 p.m.
